Turning public transport into a civil right
21 August 2024
Railway passengers in Hungary aren't having the easiest of summers. Significant delays and cancellations have become regular, and the heat is often unbearable in up to 50-year-old vehicles, which poses a health risk to travellers and workers alike. In the face of growing public discontent over unreliable rail services, the Hungarian State Railways (MÁV) is about to undergo a long-awaited systematic restructuring, part of which is to declare the right to transport a fundamental civil right. While the details of what such a right means remain undefined, this would include clarifying "what passengers are entitled to," according to the minister of transport, who wants to avoid arbitrary line closures and cutting off entire municipalities from the national network.
It is unclear, however, whether this new fundamental civil right will ensure reasonable travelling and working conditions on trains, such as during the increasingly hot summers. "The country is not prepared for this drastic climate change, and neither are the people," the minister said, and while that's true (not just in Hungary), the proposed solution seems quite lacklustre. The plan for handling next year's heat, for example, is to substitute the trains with air-conditioned buses "when 40 degrees will hit."
 | Fruzsina Szikszai Increasing train travel is critical to decarbonising transport across Europe, and defining it as a civil right could help emphasise the importance of this mode of travel, potentially attracting further investments. More affordable public transport is also a key aspect of making it accessible to more people, although few countries have taken serious measures on this account. Luxembourg, on the other hand, is a good example of the opposite, following their 2020 decision to make all public transport free of charge. In the meantime, railways and trains across the continent are in dire need of investments and better planning. An analysis by the International Transport Forum at the OECD found that in 2021, only 6 of its 66 member countries spent more than half of their transport infrastructure budget on rail. On the EU level, there are also wishes and efforts to boost rail infrastructure and bridge the patchwork of national networks currently struggling to cooperate. One good example is that of Czechia, where they will soon implement the single European Train Control System (ETCS) on selected railway lines, a new mandatory measure from the EU that aims to unify railway security across European countries. |
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